The ACTU argues Australia’s richest woman wields massive influence over the Coalition’s industrial relations policy.
Gina Rinehart once argued that “Australian wages were too expensive and too uncompetitive”.
“Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than two dollars a day. Such statistics make me worry for this country’s future,” she told the Sydney Mining Club.
The Australian Electoral Commission has revealed that Gina Rinehart has pumped $500,000 in political donations to the Coalition through her company, Hancock Prospecting.
Rinehart also recently hosted fundraisers for Peter Dutton, charging guests $14,000 a head, and is a major backer of the IPA – the influential Liberal Party-aligned think tank that has called for the abolition of the minimum wage and the dismantling of workplace rights and protections.
Dutton was the guest of honour at Rinehart’s 70th birthday last year. A mural of the celebration, with Rinehart sitting side by side with Dutton, graces the reception of the mogul’s Roy Hill mine.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus says the wages of working-class Australians are on the line this election and voters should be way of Rinehart’s “oligarchic”-like influence over Peter Dutton and the Coalition.
“No billionaire should be able to use their limitless resources to influence politics to scrap workers’ rights.
“Big mining money influence over the Coalition is dangerous. It’s no coincidence that the Coalition has committed to re-opening wage-cutting schemes for big business and has refused to rule out any cuts to penalty rates. Workers can’t afford to lose any rights at work.”